It’s 11:30am, you’ve just finished up three hours of work and you have an hour in which to feed your 2 ½ yr old son and ‘attempt’ to get him to take a nap (which he stopped doing about 6 months ago) before your next three hour block of work.  Here’s how it goes down: you plop something down in front of him while you go about cleaning up from the morning’s events; checking and replying to email; preparing and …

Screen Free Week at our house….didn’t go the way I expected.
I was excited to participate in it.  I love the idea of a digital detox….But, since our kids usually see just one show each day, I didn’t expect it to make a huge difference in our home.  I expected to have calmer, more peaceful kids (which I got), but I also expected to get way behind on all those not-kid-friendly tasks I usually try (quite hurriedly!) to knock out during …

We have a very simple rule in our house about television or computers.       NONE.
Of course, like all rules, this gets broken from time to time. It gets broken on the occasions when I’ve been working all day and my husband has had a busy day full of child care and he is cooking dinner (yes he is a home husband).  I come home and the children are watching the television. What I know when I find them there is my …

That upcoming Birthday party is still weeks away…but you can already hear the march, march, marching of an ominous army of beeping, flashing, plastic toys – headed directly towards your house.  You’ve worked hard to simplify your child’s environment, and don’t want to lose your recent success…But you also know that everyone who offers your child gifts does it out of love.  How can you win the support of friends and family around your chosen path of simplicity – in …

There has been a lot of talk on our facebook page recently about simplifying our playrooms and toy collections.  It is exciting to share this journey with other parents who are asking many of the same questions.  Which toys to toss?  Which to keep?  Which toys really inspire creative play?
The most valuable suggestion I took from the chapter regarding toys is this:  The best toys are open-ended.  Open-ended toys are not locked into any one role (i.e., “dinosaur” or “police …

Are you feeling the temptation yet? This time of year it really does seem that the best way we can honor our children is to shower them with toys! The push to do this may come from commercials or family or from our own desire as a parent to show our kids some love.
This week the Mother Company featured Simplicity Parenting in a wonderful article;  “What Too Many Toys Can Do.” I think you’ll enjoy it, and hope it will …

An interview on CBS 42

Welcome back to our Simplicity Parenting book study.  This week, one of my personal favorite chapters!  I hope you enjoyed it, too.  We will be discussing Environment.  Our Stuff.  And Toys.
How much stuff is too much?  What kind of environment is most healthy?  What environment is most conducive to nurturing imagination or to a giving spirit?
This chapter discusses the “mountain of toys” that is so common in bedrooms and toy boxes everywhere, and the implications this phenomenon has on developing …

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.
Rachel Carson

Many of us are intentional about giving our kids time in nature, giving them open space and time to dig, or taking nature walks together with them.  I’ve always enjoyed the idea of the nature walk, but, to be honest, I’ve …

Today was a big day in our 4 year old’s eyes – the day we left for vacation.  A day he’d wake up at 5am, crawl into our bed, and tell me again and again how “‘cited” he was about our trip.  It was also at 5 am that he began making serious logistical plans on the care and travel of his stuffed animals during our trip.  I asked if we might pick just one to bring, but he assured …